Target dot sight having target illumination sensor

ABSTRACT

A target dot sight includes a target illumination sensor that senses the amount of illumination at a target, rather than merely sensing the ambient sight of the entire operating environment. Then, based on the sensed target illumination, the target dot sight may automatically compensate for the brightness of the target.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is continuation of U.S. non-provisional patentapplication Ser. No. 17/857,944, titled “TARGET DOT SIGHT HAVING TARGETILLUMINATION SENSOR,” filed Jul. 5, 2022, which is a continuation ofU.S. non-provisional patent application Ser. No. 17/152,745, titled“TARGET DOT SIGHT HAVING TARGET ILLUMINATOR SENSOR,” filed Jan. 19,2021, which is a non-provisional of and claims benefit from U.S.provisional patent application No. 62/962,696, titled “TARGETING DOTSIGHT HAVING TARGET ILLUMINATION SENSOR,” filed Jan. 17, 2020, thedisclosures of all of which are incorporated herein by reference intheir entirety.

FIELD

This disclosure relates to a target dot sight for a firearm, and, moreparticularly, to a system for controlling the brightness of the targetdot sight.

BACKGROUND

A target dot sights project a target dot, such as a red dot, at atarget. Early red dot sights included a single, static, brightnesssetting. Since the ambient light of the environment in which the shooteris operating may vary, manufacturers began offering user-controlledbrightness settings. This allowed the user to manually increase thebrightness of the target dot in bright conditions, and to reduce thebrightness in dark conditions. Next came automatic brightness adjusters,where, based off readings from an ambient light sensor on the sight, thetarget dot would automatically increase brightness when the ambientlight is brighter, and reduce the brightness of the target dot whenthere is less ambient light. A problem, exists in these automaticadjustment systems, however, in that the target itself may have adifferent brightness level than the ambient light gathered by the lightsensor. For instance, the target may be brightly lit at the far end of adark room. In such a condition, the ambient sensor correctly senses thatthe room is dark, and therefore reduces the target dot brightnessaccordingly. In this example, the target dot may not even be visible atthe bright target because the ambient sensor caused the sight to reducethe brightness of the target dot.

Embodiments of the disclosure address these and other limitations of theart.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a target dot sight having a targetillumination sensor and automatic brightness control according toembodiments of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the target dot sight illustrated in FIG. 1according to embodiments.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the target dot sight illustrated in FIG. 1according to embodiments.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram illustrating example operations ofa brightness control of the target dot sight of FIG. 1 , according toembodiments.

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram illustrating example operations ofa brightness control of another target dot sight according toembodiments.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating example operations of a brightnesscontrol of the target dot sight of FIG. 1 , according to embodiments.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating example components of abrightness control system according to embodiments of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In embodiments, a target dot sight includes a target illumination sensorthat senses the amount of illumination at a target, rather than merelysensing the ambient sight of the entire operating environment. Then,based on the sensed target illumination, the target dot sightautomatically compensates for the brightness of the target. Further, insome embodiments, the brightness of the target dot generated by thesight is not just a function of the input of the sensor, but ratherincludes logic to control the brightness in an intelligent way.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a target dot sight 100 having a targetillumination sensor 110 and automatic brightness control according toembodiments of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the target dot sight 100 illustrated in FIG. 1according to embodiments. This view shows that the sensor 110 sitswithin a recess 112, rather than being mounted at the front of thehousing of the sight 100, such as an ambient light sensor would be. Therecess 112 blocks ambient light from entering the sensor 110, andinstead the sensor 110 senses light from the target itself. The shapeand depth of the recess 112 may be implementation specific. In otherwords, for some embodiments, a deeper recess 112 provides better overalloperation of the automatic brightness control of the sight 100. In otherembodiments, a shallower recess 112 may be used. In some embodiments therecess 112 may extend between 2 and 10 mm from the front surface of thesight 100, with the sensor 110 mounted at the rear-most end of therecess, as illustrated in FIG. 2 . In preferred embodiments the recess112 may be 5-6 mm in length. In some embodiments the recess 112 is not arecess at all, but instead may be a protrusion from the sight 200 thatfunctions to block ambient light from the sensor 110.

In some embodiments a light pipe or fiber optic 116 may be mounted inthe recess 112 to convey light from the target to the sensor 110. Thelight pipe or fiber optic 116 carries light from a front end of the pipeto the sensor 110, so that the sensor 110 may sense the light at thetarget, without having ambient light interfere with the sensormeasurement.

In yet other embodiments a lens 118 may be mounted at or near the frontopening of the recess 112. In those embodiments, the lens 118 operatesto focus the light from the target to the sensor 110 to minimizeintrusion of ambient light. In some embodiments the lens 118 may be aFresnel lens or have the same or similar function as a Fresnel lens tofurther block ambient light. Some embodiments include both a lens 118 aswell as the light pipe (or fiber optic) 116 in the recess 112.

FIG. 2 also illustrates a light generating device 130, such as an LED.When the LED 130 is ON, it generates light that shines through a lens140 toward the target. A brightness control circuit 150 drives the LED130 to generate different amounts of light, depending on the operatingconditions, as described in detail below.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the target dot sight illustrated in FIG. 1according to embodiments, which shows the sensor 110 within the recess112 in the body of the sight 100, as well as the lens 140 that focusesthe light signal from the light generating device 130 on the target.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram illustrating example components andoperations of a brightness control of a target dot sight 200, which maybe an example of the sight 100 described above, according toembodiments. In FIG. 4 , a variable output target light 230 may have thesame function as the light generating device 130 of FIG. 2 . Forexample, the target light 230 may generate a light signal 232, such as ared dot, and projects the red dot onto a target 290. In otherembodiments the target light 230 may generate another color dot, or maygenerate a pattern, such as a target pattern. A target illuminationsensor 210 may have the same function as the sensor 110 of FIG. 2 ,which is to sense the illumination, or brightness level, or the lux, ofthe target 290. As described above, the target illumination sensor 210sits in a recess 212 sized and shaped so that the light from the target290 is sensed more than the ambient light that is near the sight 200.

In some embodiments, the target light 230 has multiple brightnesssettings, and the brightness of the light generated by the target light230 is controlled by a brightness control 250. The brightness control250 may be controlled by user inputs 260, or by an automatic adjuster270, or may be controlled by a combination of both of these at differenttimes of operation. When the brightness control 250 is controlled by theuser inputs 260, the brightness control 250 causes the target light 230to shine more brightly when the user increases the brightness level, andto shine less brightly when the user decreases the brightness level.Typically the user inputs 260 are a manual process, such as a pair ofup/down buttons, or a single button that cycles through a number ofpredetermined power settings before repeating the brightness levels. Inother embodiments the user inputs 260 may include a menu and menuselector. In an automatic mode, when the brightness control 250 iscontrolled by the automatic adjuster 270, the user-set brightness levelis not enabled and the brightness of the target light 230 isautomatically set at a level determined by the automatic adjuster 270.In some embodiments the sight 200 will alternate between the brightnesscontrol 250 being controlled by user inputs 260, or by the automaticadjuster 270, according operations as described below. In otherembodiments the automatic adjustor 270 may store the present usersetting and revert to the stored setting under certain conditions.

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram illustrating example components andoperations of another brightness control of a target dot sight 300,which may be an example of the sight 100 described above, according toembodiments. The target dot sight 300 differs from the target dot sight200 in that the target dot sight 300 further includes, in addition tothe components of the target sight 200, an ambient illumination sensor380. Differently than the target illumination sensor 310, the ambientillumination sensor 380 sits at or near the front edge of the sight 300.In this way the ambient illumination sensor 380 may sense light morenear the target dot sight 300 itself than does the target illuminationsensor, 310, which instead senses light from the target 390.

A user may use the user inputs 360 to control which illumination sensoris operative on the target dot sight 300. In other words, the user mayselect to use the target illumination sensor 310 or the ambientillumination sensor 380. In other embodiments the user may select to usea combination of both of the sensors 310 and 380. In yet otherembodiments the user may set the sensors 310, 380 to a desired relativeweighting level. For instance, the user may set the target dot sight 300to weight the target illumination sensor at 310 at 35% and the ambientillumination sensor 380 at 65%.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating example operations of a brightnesscontrol flow 400 of the target dot sight of FIG. 1 , according toembodiments. In general, after an initialization, the sight senses anamount of illumination from the target through a target illuminationsensor, such as the sensor 210 of FIG. 4 , in an operation 402. Thesesensed values are periodically stored in a series of the sensed valuesin an operation 408, such as in a circular buffer, although other memoryschema may be used. In some embodiments the stored illumination valuesare averaged in an operation 406 in a continually adjusting manner, asthe target illumination changes. In some embodiments the average isdetermined by only those values stored in the circular buffer. In otherembodiments the average may include historical values that have alreadybeen overwritten in the circular buffer, i.e., values that are olderthan the number of storage locations in the circular buffer.

Then, in an operation 408, the flow 400 checks to see if the brightnesscontrol is currently in a light saturation mode or not. Light saturationmode means that the target is much more brightly illuminated than itpreviously was, whereas not being in saturation mode means that thetarget is not much more brightly illuminated than it previously was. Insome embodiments, the level of brightness difference between saturationmode and non-saturation mode is user adjustable. The sight may changefrom non-saturation mode to saturation mode when another light source issuddenly directed to the target, such as from a flashlight, or otherlight source, for example. Note that the operation 408 determineswhether the brightness controller is presently in the saturation mode.Causing the brightness controller to enter or leave the saturation modeis controlled by operations 414 and 422 described below.

If the sight is not already in saturation mode, the flow 400 leaves thecomparison 408 in the NO direction. Next, the process 400 compares aninstantaneous reading from the illumination sensor to the presentaverage of the stored values in a comparison operation 410. If theinstantaneous light reading is much greater than the running average,determined in the comparison 410, then the flow 400 exits the comparison410 in the YES direction. In some embodiments, the definition of “muchgreater than the running average” means exceeding the running average by25 Lux, but different embodiments can use different threshold levelsdepending on the implementation.

After exiting operation 410 in the YES direction, the flow 400 storesthe present brightness, which may have been a user-selected brightnesslevel, in an operation 412 and sets the brightness value of the deviceto maximum brightness in an operation 414. The flow 400 sets thebrightness value to maximum brightness because the target was suddenlyilluminated very brightly, i.e., the present brightness value greatlyexceeds the average brightness value, and the sight is responsive tobring up the brightness value of the target dot quickly. The flow 400also changes its mode to “currently in light saturation mode” so thatthe operation 408 will be answered correctly the next time the processloops through the flow 400. Then the flow 400 progresses to a wait state416, and waits until the next sampling interval occurs before repeatingthe process. In some embodiments the sampling interval is 100 ms. Inother embodiments the sampling interval may be set to an intervalbetween 10 ms and 500 ms. In some embodiments the interval is usercontrollable.

Returning back to operation 408, if the sight is not presently in lightsaturation mode and the outcome of the comparison in operation 410 isNO, then this means the instantaneous sensor reading is higher than theaverage reading, but does not exceed the average by the thresholdamount, such as 25 Lux. In this case, the flow 400 exits operation 410in the NO direction to the wait state 416 before repeating the analysisagain. This process provides a hysteresis effect to the operation of theflow 400.

Returning back to operation 408 once more, if the sight 200 is presentlyin light saturation mode, the flow 400 exits comparison 408 in the YESdirection to another comparison 420. Comparison 420 determines whetherthe running average of the light readings is much greater than theinstantaneous light reading. In some embodiments, the definition of“much greater than the instantaneous light reading” means exceeding theinstantaneous light reading by 25 Lux, but different embodiments can usedifferent threshold levels depending on the implementation. If therunning average is much greater than the instantaneous light reading,then the flow 400 exits operation 420 in the YES direction, whichindicates that the illumination of the target has suddenly dropped fromits previous illumination. In this case, the brightness level is set inan operation 422 to the level previously stored in the operation 412,meaning that the brightness level of the target light returns to thelevel previously set by the user, and is no longer in the maximumbrightness mode (unless the user had previously set the brightness levelto its maximum). The operation 422 also resets the saturation mode ofthe brightness controller to not being in saturation mode.

Although particular values, such as 25 Lux and 100 ms are used in theexample flow 400 above, embodiments of the invention may work withvalues different from those given here, and instead may be varieddepending on implementation details.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an example processor system 550, which mayperform the main operations described in the flow 400 of FIG. 6 , andmay also control operation of the target light output. In someembodiments the example processor system 550 may be used as thebrightness control system 150 described above.

The processor system 550 includes a central processor or microcontroller510 configured or programmed to perform the brightness controloperations described above. Although only one processor 510 is shown inFIG. 1 for ease of illustration, as will be understood by one skilled inthe art, any number of processors or microcontrollers 510 of varyingtypes may be used in combination, rather than a single processor.

The processor or microcontroller 510 may be configured to executeinstructions from a memory 520 and may perform any methods and/orassociated steps indicated by such instructions, such as readingbrightness values, averaging values, storing present brightness values,etc. The memory 520 may be implemented as processor cache, random accessmemory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), solid state memory, non-volatilememory, hard disk drive(s), or any other memory type. In someembodiments the memory 520 is integrated with the processor ormicrocontroller 510. The memory 520 acts as a medium for storing data,computer program products, and other instructions.

User inputs 580 are coupled to the one or more processors 510. Userinputs 580 may include one or more pushbuttons, a selectable menu,touchscreen, and/or any other controls employable by a user to interactwith the sight. In some embodiment the user inputs 580 may be made onanother device, such as a mobile phone or computer and sent through acommunication channel, wired or wireless, to the processor system 550.

A target light sensor 530 may operate as any of the target light sensorsdescribed above. In general, the target light sensor 530 creates anoutput signal reading indicative of the amount of light striking thetarget light sensor. As described above, the target light sensor ispositioned to minimize reading of ambient light while maximizing thereading the light striking a target. The target light sensor 530 outputis fed to the processor or microcontroller 510. After the processor ormicrocontroller 510 determines at which output to drive the targetlight, a signal is fed to a target light output 590 to generate thetarget dot or target light at the brightness level controlled by theprocessor or microcontroller 510.

The aspects of the present disclosure are susceptible to variousmodifications and alternative forms. Specific aspects have been shown byway of example in the drawings and are described in detail herein.However, one should note that the examples disclosed herein arepresented for the purposes of clarity of discussion and are not intendedto limit the scope of the general concepts disclosed to the specificaspects described herein unless expressly limited. As such, the presentdisclosure is intended to cover all modifications, equivalents, andalternatives of the described aspects in light of the attached drawingsand claims.

References in the specification to aspect, example, etc., indicate thatthe described item may include a particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic. However, every disclosed aspect may or may notnecessarily include that particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring tothe same aspect unless specifically noted. Further, when a particularfeature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with aparticular aspect, such feature, structure, or characteristic can beemployed in connection with another disclosed aspect whether or not suchfeature is explicitly described in conjunction with such other disclosedaspect.

EXAMPLES

Illustrative examples of the technologies disclosed herein are providedbelow. An example of the technologies may include any one or more, andany combination of, the examples described below.

Example 1 is a targeting sight, comprising a light generating sourcestructured to generate a target light and project it toward a target, atarget light sensor disposed in the targeting sight and structured tosense a brightness value of the target while excluding ambient lightfrom the target light sensing, and a brightness controller structured tocontrol the light generating source based at least in part on thebrightness value sensed by the target light sensor.

Example 2 is a targeting sight according to Example 1 above, in whichthe targeting sight comprises an aperture, and in which the target lightsensor is disposed in the aperture.

Example 3 is a targeting sight according to Examples 1 and 2 above, inwhich the aperture is structured to block at least a portion of ambientlight from reaching the target light sensor.

Example 4 is a targeting sight according to Examples 1 and 2 above,further comprising a light pipe disposed in the aperture.

Example 5 is a targeting sight according to Examples 1 and 2 above,further comprising a fiber optic disposed in the aperture.

Example 6 is a targeting sight according to any of the Examples above,in which the brightness controller stores historic target brightnesslevels.

Example 7 is a targeting sight according to Example 6, in which thebrightness controller determines an average of historic targetbrightness values.

Example 8 is a targeting sight according to Example 7, in which thebrightness controller compares a present target light value to theaverage of historic target brightness values.

Example 9 is a method for controlling a target light generator in atargeting sight, comprising reading a present brightness of a target,generating an average brightness value from two or more targetbrightness readings, comparing the present brightness of the target tothe average brightness value, and generating a target light generatorcontrol signal based on the comparison of the present brightness of thetarget to the average brightness value.

Example 10 is a method according to Example 9 above, further comprisingdetermining whether the target light generator is in a saturation mode.

Example 11 is a method according to Examples 9-10 above, furthercomprising setting the target light generator to the saturation modewhen the present brightness of the target exceeds the average brightnessvalue by 25 Lux or more.

Example 12 is a method according to Examples 9-11 above, furthercomprising storing a present level of the target light generator controlsignal level prior to setting the target light generator to thesaturation mode.

Example 13 is a method according to Examples 9-12 above, furthercomprising entering a restoration setting mode when the target lightgenerator is in the saturation mode, but when the present brightness ofthe target is below the average brightness value by 25 Lux or more.

Example 14 is a method according to Examples 9-13 above, furthercomprising, when entering the restoration setting mode, setting thetarget light generator control signal to a previously stored lightgenerator control signal level.

Additionally, this written description refers to particular features.One should understand that the disclosure in this specification includesall possible combinations of those particular features. For example,where a particular feature is disclosed in the context of a particularaspect, that feature can also be used, to the extent possible, in thecontext of other aspects.

All features disclosed in the specification, including the claims,abstract, and drawings, and all the steps in any method or processdisclosed, may be combined in any combination, except combinations whereat least some of such features and/or steps are mutually exclusive. Eachfeature disclosed in the specification, including the claims, abstract,and drawings, can be replaced by alternative features serving the same,equivalent, or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise.

In addition, when this application refers to a method having two or moredefined steps or operations, the defined steps or operations can becarried out in any order or simultaneously, unless the context excludesthose possibilities.

Although specific embodiments have been illustrated and described forpurposes of illustration, it will be understood that variousmodifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A targeting sight, comprising: a light generatingsource structured to generate a target light and project it toward atarget; a target light sensor disposed in the targeting sight andstructured to sense a brightness value of the target while excludingambient light from the target light sensing; a storage componentstructured to store a light value; and a brightness controllerstructured to control the light generating source based at least in parton the brightness value sensed by the target light sensor.